I watched as the groups left, Martin, Ska, and the invisible Fiona joining them. It was the safest they could be considering our circumstances.

Seeing as there was nothing left to do I turned toward the four soldiers. There were three men and one woman. I decided to use Identify on them. I had decided not to use it earlier in case anyone got upset at its use. While I had upgraded the skill there was no telling if it was completely undetectable.

Robert | Astromancer | Level 12

Gordon | Eagle-Eye | Level 11

Anisha | Necro-Ecomancer | 13

Tyrone | Jidian Lancer | Level 12

All interesting class names. I figured Gordon's class probably gave him archery skills or something, considering the bow he held. As for the other three, it wasn't entirely clear.

"So anyone up for some cards?" I asked.

The four looked at each other but nobody responded. I sighed, tapping my foot and looking around in boredom. I don't remember having this little to do in such a long time.

After an hour of standing around with the mutes, I decided to head back into the fortress. I could work on my projects if they were just going to stand around and stare at me all day.

"Sir, you can't go in there," one of the men, Robert I thought his name was, stated flatly.

"Sure I can… see... I'm walking up the ramp. And hey look the door is opening for me. And what's this I'm stepping inside."

"Sir, please, kindly step outside and wait," the man added, getting grumpy.

"Look, maybe you four like standing out in the Texas sun all day but I don't. In fact, my fair northern skin is burning. So, I'm going to go to where it's nice and cool. Feel free to guard the entry ramp until I return."

The man shouted something as he tried to run up the stairs and grab me but the door slammed shut before he was halfway up. I just rolled my eyes and entered the inner door. I could hear the muted pounding on the door but I ignored it. Instead, I got myself a cold beer from the fridge and a leftover sandwich. The label on the beer read 'After the End' a nod to the apocalypse. It was made by an enterprising man in Houston that the Marshall had introduced me to.

The drink was infinitely better than the skunky beer that was leftover from pre-System Earth. But it was pricy and hard to come by. Good thing I had a ton of credits and I did the man a favor by capturing his ex-partner who had tried to run off with his recipe and fermentation supplies. Now I had ten cases of the deliciously cold beverage.

As I passed the control room, I glanced at the remote viewer, watching two of the men struggle to try and open the door without damaging anything. The other two were on the ground shaking their heads. I made my way up to my workroom, they would give up eventually.

***

"Just leave it be," Anisha called out to Robert and Tyrone.

The two had been at it for twenty minutes with nothing to show for their efforts but a bruised ego.

"What do you think he is up to in there?" Gordon asked.

"Who knows, probably taking a nap or some shit. If he wanted to leave or attack us he would have done so by now. You saw his level right?"

"No, too high for me to get a read on it, what was it?"

"Too high for me as well, so above eighteen at least. Also, he has a unique class that I haven't seen before, sounded like a caster class."

"Insight told me the four of us would have a very hard time taking him down."

"Hmm, but not impossible," she added.

"What about your skills, anything?"

"No, there is no dead plant matter for me to control within this odd ship, craft, bunker, or whatever you want to call it. Byron might be able to crack it open with his Geomantic skills but he is patrolling the northern border."

"Should have just taken him up on his offer to play cards."

"Yup," Anisha replied.

***

I fiddled with a football-sized representation of the fortress. It had been the prototype that I used to create the invisibility field and the shield. I was trying to figure out what I had done wrong. Sure my all-seeing-eye could pierce the enchantment but the range was limited to about fifty feet. No way could I have spotted it from five hundred plus feet away. I disabled my tattoo and let the item float in place, walking around to see if I could spot it with my naked eye.

There was nothing. I scratched my chin in thought. 'Maybe air resistance was heating the exterior causing the field to fluctuate?'

My staff appeared in my hand and the end lit with fire. I held it on one side of the object for a few minutes, then placed the staff back in my ring.

I walked around again and observed the field. It was subtle but it was there. I didn't think that was the issue though. For one, we weren't going fast enough to heat the air to that high of a temperature. 'Perhaps the speed was causing some issue?'

I activated Blink Step, running around the object as fast as I could with the space available to me. Again, nothing out of the ordinary that I could spot. In frustration, I plopped into a couch at the far end of the room and just glared at the object. That's when I spotted something, it was subtle mainly due to the distance I was from the object.

I quickly stood back up and grabbed the item, finding the longest open stretch inside the fortress. I set it about two-thirds of the way down the hall, then ran to the far end. When I turned around and looked, I had to slap myself on the forehead. "How could I have missed this!"

The magical field caused a lensing effect, that's just what it did to render an object invisible. Problem was, that effect was distorted at distance. It was hard to see unless you were looking at the sky but it was easy enough to spot once you saw the effect. I was glad it didn't also act as a magnifying glass, I couldn't imagine the damage we would have done, simply by flying.

With that mystery solved, I put the prototype away. I didn't think there was any way to fix this issue, not without completely tearing out the runes that caused the effect and replacing them with something different. That just wasn't feasible. We would just have to be aware of the limitations. A longer distance remote viewing device would help prevent us from encountering hostiles. We could also fly lower to limit the lensing effect. It was just a reminder that no magic was perfect. I may need to add armor plates to the bottom of the fortress. It shouldn't be too difficult.

After cleaning up, I checked my watch. It had been a few hours. Either the negotiations were going great or were dragging on. I wasn't too worried, the three of them should be more than enough to escape if things got hairy. When I walked past the control center, to the kitchen, I saw that the two men had given up trying to open the outer door. I had to chuckle.

The runes I added to the door were simple but highly effective. All they did was fuse the door to the wall, making it one solid unit. Then I added a rune that reduced the force applied to the surface and a rune that strengthened the entire structure. I hadn't been able to apply these runes to the whole fortress due to the way I ended up adding the levitation runes. I didn't regret that decision. Using the plates was nice for replaceability but they lacked the overall power that the large runic surface that covered the entire bottom. Not that anyone would know it was there, hidden as it was using the Odin rune.

I decided to take a bit of a nap, it had been a long day.

***

I was woken up an undetermined time later when I heard the door cycle. I got up from the couch just as the inner door cycled. The sounds of arguing coming from Martin and Ska.

"They demand too much," Ska growled.

"Well, they are in the position to demand whatever they like. It doesn't mean we have to give it to them. We just need to reach a consensus," Martin added.

"Still, they could show some concessions after four hours of discussion," Fiona stated.

"So... I'm taking it wasn't all roses and rainbows?"

"No," Martin deflated. "They are trying to rake us over the coals for everything they can get. They even demanded we remove all armaments from the fortress."

"Well, they can forget about that," I stated bluntly.

"Yeah, I told them that you were a hired contractor and the fortress belonged to you. Still, they tried to demand that I talk you into selling them some of the weapons."

"Hmm, I might be willing to part with some of the spares we couldn't mount. But I would need to bind them to an oath not to attack me or my allies with them."

Martin perked up at this news. "Really?"

I shrugged, "I was planning on selling them anyway, might as well put them to use for a supposed alliance."

"That might make the talks tomorrow go a bit more smoothly. By the way, why were the guards outside so irate?"

I chuckled, "Oh they were peeved that I went inside and ignored them all day."

Martin groaned, "please play nice with them tomorrow, my job is hard enough as it is."

"Yeah, sure, bud. For you, I will try," I said with a smile.

Martin sighed, "why did I let you talk me into this," he said, heading toward the kitchen.

I yelled after him, "because, I'm awesome!"

His reply was to flip me the bird without turning around. I chuckled again, turning to Ska. "So, you having fun?"

He just grumbled and walked off.

"Buncha crabs today."

"They will get over it," Fiona said, slugging me in the shoulder, causing a wave of cold to radiate down my body.

I rubbed the spot, "Ow, what was that for?"

"I think you know," she said, walking away to join the others in the kitchen.

I rubbed the spot she punched me and smiled. Not that I wanted to see my friends suffer but they had gotten to have fun and go dungeon diving for weeks while I worked on the fortress. It was about time I got to relax and enjoy myself while they had to do the hard part.

We certainly had more to offer these people than Martin realized. The issue with their neighbors for one. Enchanted weapons for another. Heck, I could even make them their own pseudo fortress, given the time and resources. Those things wouldn't come free of course. And I would take steps to ensure they were used properly. It might actually indebt them to me.

But that was enough postulating, I felt bad for teasing them, so I walked into the kitchen to apologize.

When I got there, they were all trying to suppress grins to varying degrees of success.

"Oh... you jerks. You made the deal already, didn't you?"

"More or less," Martin said with a grin.

"So why all the theatrics?"

"It was Fiona's idea, she saw how you treated those guards," Martin's smile turning into a faked frown as he rubbed his fingers at me, "shame on you, ya bully."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, ok. So what's left to do?"

"Just a few details to hammer out."

"What about all this with the weapons or was that part of your joke?"

"No, they did ask about purchasing some. Mr. Hornwell will have someone come by tomorrow to negotiate a price."

"That's great news, we should be out by late tomorrow."

"Probably not, " Martin cut in, spoiling my good mood. "Mr. Hornwell wants to throw a feast to celebrate the alliance."

I groaned at that news. Being in a room full of people I didn't know or trust did not sound like my idea of a good time. I would spend the entire night sizing people up and figuring out how to escape in case things went south.

"That sounds fun. You and Ska have a good time. I'm going to pass on going," I stated flatly before walking out of the room and heading upstairs, to the surprise of all three.

Fiona found me a few minutes later, "you need to go," she said.

"No, I don't."

"Is this about your trust issues?"

I didn't answer her, which was as much as an admission as answering was.

"That's fine, but do it for Martin. Celebrate your friend's victory. Or as you would probably phrase it, suck it up buttercup!"

She was right and I hated that. I sighed, "fine, I'll put up with it for Martin but if it becomes too much, I may have to step out."

She nodded in understanding, giving me a cold peck on the cheek. I noticed the cold didn't sting as much, or maybe I was just getting used to it.